Beth

“Mihajlo, what the fuck are you doing?” groaned Mo as he saw the deranged man defecating in front of their residential building. Mihajlo was laughing and clapping, and Ramman just pulled Mo’s shoulder, signaling to ignore the homeless man. Mo let out a deep sigh, the day just fucking started.

The two made their way through the street as they headed for the station. It was quiet at this time of the day; everyone was still deep in their sleep and Mo was thankful for the peace that he was soaking in. Best thing about sleeping early was the fact that when you woke up the next day, everyone would still be indoors, and you could just enjoy a time of serene calm.

Unfortunately, as they continued walking, a growing stench of piss and shit filled the air, and Mo cursed the broken sewage pipe that appeared to be the source of his morning’s downfall.

“I hope we see Aziz, I think his group arrived last week,” Mo found himself saying to which Ramman just nodded and gave a quick yeah. Mo didn’t know whether it was their new mission or an additional identity crisis that had Ramman be in a bad mood.

“If you were a girl, I’d marry you,” said Mo trying to lighten up the mood.

“Man, fuck you!” replied a smirking Ramman, “you know I don’t swing that way and yet you keep saying shit like this.” He said the last part giggling to himself, and Mo counted that as a mini victory.

Their walk was finally coming to an end when Mo heard the rail-tracks vibrating he knew they were close, a few seconds later they arrived to the station. They showed their official badges and skipped the ride fee. The station associate informed them that their ride was still a few minutes away and so Mo hung around the cliff and stared down the deep chasm that stretched to infiite darkness.

The void below instantly had him thinking about their mission and his stomach began rumbling as the stress started building up. Aunt Beth was supposedly ill, despite their meeting yesterday, he felt something off about Naz and this whole situation.

“What’d you think of Nav’s approach” Ramman interrupted his thoughts, “I mean, the man could’ve had someone approach us when we arrived, instead it felt he like just remembered to have us summoned and had the guards send us back to his place.”

His friend confirmed his suspicions. Nav was acting up, something was wrong, but Mo couldn’t place his arrow on it.

“You alright?” asked Ramman and Mo realized he hadn’t replied.

“Yeah, yeah, I was just thinking about the absurdity of all this. Don’t worry about it though, when we see her, we’ll know what’s truly happened.” Just as he said that their tram-hybrid-cart arrived and the two got on as they headed to Aunt Beth’s place.

****

What the fuck?  That was the first thing the Mo thought off when he saw Aunt Beth, or what remained of her old self. She was thin as a stick; her skeleton shaping her flesh. He and Ramman shared a horrified look and slowly approached her.

“Aunt Beth,” Ramman called in a soft voice, “We’re back”.

Nav pointed at the two of them and her eyes locked at Mo, startling him. She held his gaze for a few seconds, and Mo could almost feel her trying signal something but was confused at what it was.

“She’s irresponsive and has been like this for the past 2 weeks, I think it hurts her to even speak.” Nav said in his deep raspy voice. He was leaning next to her, in a comforting position. They were in his quarters, as Nav explained: he wanted to always keep her close to him. The man gave a generously spacious room which she would have enjoyed, if she hadn’t been in this situation.

“Thankfully, however, you two can hopefully save her. Beth,” he said in a low tone, “do you want to give them your letter?

She wouldn’t let anyone touch it, I was barely able to snap a picture of its contents, because she was so defensive about it.” She turned her head as Nav was explaining and pulled something from under the chair she was on, her eyes still distant, almost dead. A wrinkled envelope slowly came up as she struggled to even lift it, the whole thing probably felt like a battle to her. With every moment Mo’s heart was being tortured, as if a thousand knives were gnawing at it. He heard Ramman sniff and turned to see him loosening some tears, after all, this was the very woman who raised them; kids that weren’t her own but ones she treated them as hers anyways.

Nav tried taking it from her, but she wouldn’t let go, Ramman walked up to them and took the envelope away. She locked eyes with him and signaled at Nav, she probably meant to say don’t let him touch it, Ramman seemed to understand the message and gave a curt nod, before give her a kiss on her forehead.

Nav slowly got up from beside her and spoke

“Finally, this is over, you two should leave”, as he was giving a brief description of what was going to happen in regards to their trip preparation, Nav was so lost that he didn’t notice Beth locking eyes with Mo as she pointed something to her neck and slowly moved her finger to Nav.

Mo followed her direction and noticed a tiny tattoo that Nav didn’t have the last time the two of them were here. The symbol was of an undulating snake and Mo tried to hide his expression so that the man wouldn’t suspect a thing. All he knew was that Nav was probably hiding something and that they needed to deliver the letter and get this trip over with as soon as possible.

When Nav was over he escorted the two outside the room, but Mo turned back and ran to her. Nav called for him, in annoyed tone, as he stood next to the door. Mo ignored him and tried his best to gently pull Beth in an embrace before giving her a kiss on the forehead. When he tried to pull back, her frail body did its best to stop him, and she whispered something that shook his entire body.

“Come home soon, there isn’t much time left, but it doesn’t matter anyways. Make sure to deliver the letter!”